Ever
wondered how a small storm develops into a hurricane? Or how dust storms
travel from one place to another? NOAA’s
Science On A Sphere offers viewers a space traveler’s-eye
view of Earth.
The
Commerce Department’s National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
debuted its new three-dimensional, multi-media exhibit during a week
of presentations beginning with an opening ceremony today at the NOAA
Science Center in Silver Spring, Md.
“This
is an exciting and informative way for people to see NOAA’s climate,
weather, and ocean science,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad
C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., undersecretary of commerce for oceans and
atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “For example, viewers can watch
how the warm water in the Pacific that signals an El
Niño travels across the ocean, or watch a hurricane form,
as a small storm slowly gathers strength, traveling westward from Africa,
across the Atlantic Ocean, toward the Gulf of Mexico.”
Suspended from a custom-made aluminum structure,
a 68-inch fiberglass sphere is the background for animated images from
NOAA satellite and other data sets that are displayed via four projectors
and four personal computers.
“I
started thinking about this several years ago and did some experiments
on the deck of my house using a beach ball,” said Alexander MacDonald,
director of NOAA’s Forecast
Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. and the creator of the Sphere.
“I knew that putting NOAA climate, weather, oceanic, and geophysical
on a sphere would be a spectacular tool for explaining NOAA’s
science to a variety of audiences.”
The
Sphere is a collaborative effort among NOAA’s Office
of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National
Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, and National
Weather Service.
Sphere creators envision its use by museums,
science discovery centers, scientific meetings and conferences, educational
institutions, and of course, NOAA events.
“We think NOAA Science On a Sphere
will be an invaluable educational tool,” said MacDonald. “It
is a unique way to explain complex information using images. It can
be used to illustrate geography, weather, climate, space weather and
a host of other kinds of data. It’s limited only by our imagination.”
Many data sets exist, including those that
show the dry, brown deserts of Australia, Asia, Africa as well as both
North and South America in contrast to the adjacent verdant plains and
forests. Earth’s continuous plates can be traced from ocean depths
to mountain chains. Viewers can see blow across the surface of Mars
and observe the Sun erupting in violent solar storms sending streams
of deadly particles Earthward.
NOAA
Science on a Sphere will next be displayed at the 83rd Annual
Meeting of the American Meteorological
Society, Feb. 9-13, 2003, Long Beach, Calif.
The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is dedicated to enhancing economic
security and national safety through research to better understand weather
and climate-related events and to manage wisely our nation’s coastal
and marine resources.
Learn more about NOAA at:
For more information about NOAA Science
On A Sphere see:
